Money Talks — That’s Why Politicians Never Say Anything Real

You know you’re important when you get emails from
President Obama himself that start “Dear Ron” and his re-election campaign
manager sends you a personal reminder that midnight tonight is your last chance to contribute
a measly five bucks to be eligible to win the “Dinner with Barack and
Joe” contest.

June 30 is the last day of the campaign finance reporting
period and the President isn’t the only politician with his hand out.

Austin Beutner, the former first deputy mayor for just
about everything, also is in the “Dear Ron” email club with invitations to see
him hold court with friends and acquaintances in various venues as he rounds up
support and money as if the wealthy investment banker needs other people’s
money to run for mayor.

Councilwoman Jan Perry, the queen of downtown
development, is trying to make a
statement in her June 30 campaign report and so has blasted out thousands of
emails pleading:“I Need Your Help By
Midnight Tonight.”

She makes the President seem like a cheap date with his
$5 gimmick by listing $50 as the minimum she wants although I suspect sending a
check for the maximum $1,000 would cement our friendship for life and probably get you the chance to take her to dinner.

Declaring how much she loves L.A., she enumerates a few
of her achievements like creating “jobs and revenue …. mass transit to
alleviate our crowded freeways” while protecting “our environment and natural
assets.”

Who knew?

I’m all for her goal of running a campaign “that unites
our citizens around a common idea: to provide future generations with greater
opportunity to find success and have a good quality of life in our city.”

It’s big job to achieve that since today there is so
little opportunity for so many and the quality of life is rapidly getting worse
for nearly everybody.

But Jan, we are on a first name basis, is not one to pull
her punches and underscores the real point of her “Dear Ron” email:

I always wondered who declared that
“money is the mother’s milk of politics.” Now we know it’s the media and
pundits who will turn the mayoral contest into a horse race that has more to do
with how much money the candidates raise and not who actually can lead the city
and solve its problems.

Sadly, my friend Jan has a point
there.

Instead of throwing around clichés about
“future generations,” she could be talking seriously about just how broken City
Hall is and how it will take a popular uprising to change things but nobody
will listen unless she’s raised a lot of money by midnight tonight.

The crude reality of city, state, national politics is that no one can dream of getting elected without a coffer full of dollars and the backing of powerful individual$ and $pecial intere$t groupS.
Those who preach change for the sake of change face disappointment when they realize, their biggest enemy is the political apathy of the average folk. Those who sit at home hoping that something will change but are unwilling to get involved.

According to Google, our very own Jesse Unruh is the mother or father of that saying.
“Jesse Unruh said “money is the mothers’ milk of politics…”
He said it when he was Assembly speaker, right after he made a deal
with new Governor Ronald Reagan, to do away with the California Open
Primary, in 1966. He and Reagan made the deal in order to consolidate
their political power within their respective parties, without being
bothered by the likes of pesky voter Primary preferences. Reagan was
a Conservative (goldwater) Republican; Unruh was a Liberal (Kennedy)
Democrat– and arguably the most effective California Speaker of the
last hundred years.”
Source: Google Newsgroups

All insiders, one developer and a former police officer who wants to be Controller.. that’s funny no? Policeman voted in as Controller? Does that MAKE SENSE? How about a Controller with a CPA? Another Councilman running for Congress.. and the BEAT GOES ON. They all need money, but why? I never see “Advertisments” on TV .. Didn’t know Jan was campaigning — I guess they all have one thing in Common: if they lose, they still are Councilmen. If you run, you give up your seat. Get rid of IN HOUSE fraud.

Jan Perry is in bed with AEG and is pushing hard to have council ok anything Lieweke wants. Remember Perry was the one who pursaded her moron collegues to give AEG a pass on the digital billboards now up. She’s as corrupt as the rest. NO TO ANY ELECTION WITH ANY CURRENT OR PAST COUNCIL MEMBERS. Follow the money trail. AEG has donated a hell of a lot to at least 9 council members. None of the bafoons on council now or Greuel should EVER be elected to ANY other office.

Another quote attributable to Jesse Unruh is: On lobbyists – “If you can’t eat their food, drink their booze, screw their women and then vote against them, you have no business being up here.”
As impressive as Unruh and Gov Pat Brown Senior were in terms of making California great with infrastructure projects (UC System, Highways, Water Projects, School Buildings), they had their share of corruption in terms of having cash on hand to do what they wanted.
Unruh also pushed for the full-time legislature. The intent was good because it was thought that lobbyist and consultants yielded too much power, but that is still the case today even with a full-time legislature.

Make no doubt, Jan Perry has been aggressively pro-billboard and put down any opposition by the public to new billboards in her district. Just go to ban billboard blight.
She even publicly opposed the City Attorney’s attempt to protect the City’s position over AEG putting up new signage/billboards. She called the City Attorney out in the City Council and over-rode him with a vote of the City Council.
In this area, they City Attorney was looking out for the public and Perry “showed” him that the City Council sets policy and legislative decisions.